Interactions

PensionPro can store records of emails, telephone calls, appointments, and meetings with Contacts; these records are referred to as Interactions. Interactions are useful for recalling previous communications and identifying what information was conveyed, helping to maintain a "paper trail" or to determine which Clients are overdue for outreach.

Tier Availability: Team, Business

Article Contents

• Overview of Interactions
• Working with Interactions
  • Viewing Interaction Details
  • Editing Interactions
  • Resending or Forwarding Blast Email Interactions
  • Deleting Interactions
• Adding Interactions to PensionPro
  • Manually Adding an Interaction
  • Adding an Interaction from an Email File (Drag-and-Drop)
  • Automatically-Generated Interactions
• Customizing Interaction Types & Roles

Overview of Interactions

An Interaction records details of a communication, such as what type of Interaction it was, the date it occurred, and who the participants were. Depending on the Interaction type, this might also include a summary of what was discussed, or the contents of an email that was sent or received.

Interactions are present in many locations throughout PensionPro, and may be associated with one or more of the following record types:

• Contacts: If an Interaction participant exists in PensionPro as a Contact, their Contact record will be linked to the Interaction.
• Plans: An Interaction can be associated with a Plan, if applicable.
• Clients: All Interactions across all of a Client's Plans can be viewed in one place.
• Prospects, Opportunities, Proposals: SalesPitch items can be linked to Interactions similarly to Plans.

Because a lot of client communication can occur in a single day, PensionPro makes recording Interactions as convenient as possible. Some Interactions are generated automatically when using features such as Blast Email; others can be added quickly from Microsoft Outlook. For any other communications, adding Interactions is simple and can be done from any location in PensionPro.

Working with Interactions

Interactions can be viewed under many different record types throughout PensionPro. To open the Interactions grid for a record:

1. Open one of the record types from the table below.
2. With the record's tab open, select Interactions from the list of views.

Each entry in the Interactions grid represents a single email, phone call, meeting, etc. For each Interaction, the grid displays the following information:

Viewing Interaction Details

Double-click any entry in the Interactions grid to open it in a new Interaction tab.

The Interaction's Details are included on the General view of the Interaction tab. If the Interaction was created from an email, the body of the email will be shown here; if added or edited manually, this will be the text that was entered during that time.

Editing Interactions

Requires Security Rights: Add/Edit Interaction

If needed, an Interaction's information—such as its details, participants, or what record it's linked to—can be edited in a number of different ways:

• All data for an Interaction can be quickly edited by hovering over it in the Interactions grid and selecting Edit on the right-hand side.
  • This option is not available on the Client tab.
• Information on the General view of the Interaction tab can be updated by selecting Edit at the top-right.
• Individuals on the Participants view of the Interaction tab can be managed by hovering over their entry and selecting Edit or Delete on the right-hand side. New participants can be added by selecting Add at the top-right of the grid.

Resending or Forwarding Blast Email Interactions

If an Interaction was originally sent via Blast Email, it can be sent to the recipient again using the original subject, body, and settings. To resend an Interaction:

1. In the Interactions grid, click to select the desired Interaction.
2. Select More > Resend Interaction.

Alternately, the Blast Email can be forwarded to a new recipient; this is useful if a Contact was missed when the Blast Email was originally sent. To forward an Interaction:

1. In the Interactions grid, click to select the desired Interaction.
2. Select More > Forward Interaction. The corresponding window displays.
   • This option is not available on the Client tab.
3. Use the To and CC fields to choose the new recipient(s).
4. (optional) Use the Forward Body to add additional text to the email.
   • The original email body will still be included; any Forward Body text will be inserted directly above it in the final email.
5. Select Send.

Deleting Interactions

Requires Security Rights: Delete Interaction

Interactions can be deleted from the Interaction grid. To permanently remove an Interaction, hover over it and select Delete on the right-hand side. This option is not available on the Client tab.

Adding Interactions to PensionPro

New Interactions are added to PensionPro in one of three ways:

• An Interaction is automatically generated when a Blast Email or Secure File Exchange is sent.
• An email file can be dragged into the PensionPro window.
• Interaction details can be entered by hand.

These methods are discussed in detail in the sections below.

Manually Adding an Interaction

Requires Security Rights: Add/Edit Interaction

New Interactions can be recorded on the Interactions grid, or from any location in PensionPro via the Add Data menu. While this is typically the only method to add communications such as phone calls and in-person appointments, emails and other messages can be added this way as well.

To get started, use either of these methods to open the Add Interaction window:

• On the Interactions view of either the Contact, Plan, Prospect, Opportunity, or Proposal tab, select Add at the top-right of the grid.
• Navigate to Add Data > Interaction.

Then, use the Add Interaction window to complete these steps:

1. Select the Interaction's Type and enter a Title.
2. (optional) Enter any additional Details, such as what information was communicated.
3. Enter the Interaction Date that the communication took place.
4. One or more Participants fields will be shown based on the chosen Interaction Type. Use these fields to search for and select the appropriate Contacts. At least one participant is required.
5. (optional) If adding the Interaction from the Contact tab or the Add Data menu, use Link Type to choose the record type to link this Interaction, then use the [Record] Name field to search for and select the item to link.
   • Adding the Interaction from one of these record types (such as a Plan or Proposal) will link the Interaction by default; in this case, this field will not be available.
6. Select Save.

Adding an Interaction from an Email File (Drag-and-Drop)

Requires Security Rights: Add/Edit Interaction

If communication with a contact occurred via email, that email can be quickly added as an Interaction by dragging it into PensionPro. When added in this way, PensionPro can fill in many of the Interaction details directly from the email so that the information doesn't need to be entered by hand.

To add an Interaction from an email:

1. Drag the email from the Outlook inbox to the desktop or other location on the device.
   • Alternately, save the email as a .eml file using the steps provided in the Microsoft Support article Save an Outlook message as a .eml file, a PDF file, or as a draft↗.
2. Drag the saved file into the PensionPro window. The Add Interaction window displays.
3. Select the Interaction Type.
   • Only email-based Interaction Types will be available.
4. PensionPro fills the Title, Details, Interaction Date, and Participants from the email. Review and make changes if desired.
   • PensionPro will attempt to match email addresses to saved Contacts. If a match cannot be found, PensionPro will display a warning and the individual will not be added as a participant.
5. (optional) Use Link Type to choose the record type to link this Interaction, then use the [Record] Name field to search for and select the item to link.
   • If the email is added while an applicable record is open (such as a Plan or Proposal), PensionPro will assume the Interaction is associated with the record and fill these items accordingly.
6. Select Save.

Automatically-Generated Interactions

Some PensionPro features that generate emails will create Interactions when used. For example, after a Blast Email is sent, a copy of the email will be stored as an Interaction. All applicable Contacts will be saved as participants, and records will be linked where appropriate (e.g., a Blast Email sent to Plan Contacts will be linked to the corresponding Plans).

Features that create Interactions include (but are not limited to):

• Annual Data Collection
• Blast Email
• DocuSign Integration
• Dynamis Integration
• Secure File Exchange

Customizing Interaction Types & Roles

Requires Security Rights: Maintenance

PensionPro includes a selection of Interaction Types and Interaction Roles by default, but these can be customized to organize communications and participants as needed. Types and Roles are managed as List Values; refer to that article for more information.

To customize Interaction Types and Interaction Roles:

1. Navigate to Maintenance > List Values. The corresponding tab displays.
2. In the list of views, expand Core > Interaction and select either Interaction Role or Interaction Type.
3. Create a new entry by selecting Add and entering the required details, or edit an existing entry by hovering over it in the grid and selecting Edit on the right-hand side.

In addition to Display Name and Description, Interaction Type and Interaction Role entries have additional properties not present for other List Values. These properties are discussed in the below items.

Interaction Roles

Roles identify what part each participant played in an Interaction. These could be To, From, and CC if the Interaction was an email, or Organizer and Attendee if the Interaction was a meeting.

Each Interaction Role will need to be assigned a Base Role so that PensionPro understands how to correlate the Role with a participant. This is most relevant when dragging emails directly into PensionPro. For example, a meeting invite email added to PensionPro may use the email's To field to determine who the attendees were. In this case, Attendees is the Role listed on the Interaction, but To is the Base Role that sets its functionality.

Interaction Types

Similarly to Interaction Roles, Interaction Types will require a Base Type that helps define and categorize it. For example, Inbound and Outbound Phone Calls could be added as separate Interaction Types, but they would both use the Call Base Type.

Each Interaction Type also requires at least one Role, which are the same Interaction Roles defined above. When a new Interaction is created, participants can only be added to Roles available for the given Interaction Type. Continuing the example we used earlier, a Phone Call might only use the From and To Roles, as CC is not a concept that applies to a telephone.